Forex Overview

What is FOREX?

The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the “FOREX” or “Forex” or “Retail forex” or “FX” or “Spot FX” or just “Spot” is the largest financial market in the world, with a volume of over $4 trillion a day. If you compare that to the $25 billion a day volume that the New York Stock Exchange trades, you can easily see how enormous the Foreign Exchange really is. It actually equates to more than three times the total amount of the stocks and futures markets combined! Forex rocks!

What is traded on the Foreign Exchange market?

The simple answer is money. Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another. Currencies are traded through a broker or dealer, and are traded in pairs; for example the euro and the US dollar (EUR/USD) or the British pound and the Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY).
Because you’re not buying anything physical, this kind of trading can be confusing. Think of buying a currency as buying a share in a particular country. When you buy, say, Japanese Yen, you are in effect buying a share in the Japanese economy, as the price of the currency is a direct reflection of what the market thinks about the current and future health of the Japanese economy.
In general, the exchange rate of a currency versus other currencies is a reflection of the condition of that country’s economy, compared to the other countries’ economies.
Unlike other financial markets like the New York Stock Exchange, the Forex spot market has neither a physical location nor a central exchange. The Forex market is considered an Over-the-Counter (OTC) or ‘Interbank’ market, due to the fact that the entire market is run electronically, within a network of banks, continuously over a 24-hour period.
Until the late 1990′s, only the “big guys” could play this game. The initial requirement was that you could trade only if you had about ten to fifty million bucks to start with! Forex was originally intended to be used by bankers and large institutions – and not by us “little guys”. However, because of the rise of the Internet, online Forex trading firms are now able to offer trading accounts to ‘retail’ traders like us.
All you need to get started is a computer, a high-speed Internet connection, and the information contained within this site.
ForexTutorial.com was created to introduce novice or beginner traders to all the essential aspects of foreign exchange, with many sources that we got from around the net.

What is a Spot Market?

A spot market is any market that deals in the current price of a financial instrument.

Which Currencies Are Traded?

The most popular currencies along with their symbols are shown below:

Symbol	Country	Currency	Nickname
USD	United States	Dollar	Buck
EUR	Euro members	Euro	Fiber
JPY	Japan	Yen	Yen
GBP	Great Britain	Pound	Cable
CHF	Switzerland	Franc	Swissy
CAD	Canada	Dollar	Loonie
AUD	Australia	Dollar	Aussie
NZD	New Zealand	Dollar	Kiwi

Forex currency symbols are always three letters, where the first two letters identify the name of the country and the third letter identifies the name of that country’s currency.

When Can Currencies Be Traded?

The spot FX market is unique within the world markets. It’s like a Super Wal-Mart where the market is open 24-hours a day. At any time, somewhere around the world a financial center is open for business, and banks and other institutions exchange currencies every hour of the day and night with generally only minor gaps on the weekend.
The foreign exchange markets follow the sun around the world, so you can trade late at night (if you’re a vampire) or in the morning (if you’re an early bird). Keep in mind though, the early bird doesn’t necessarily get the worm in this market – you might get the worm but a bigger, nastier bird of prey can sneak up and eat you too…

Time Zone	New York	GMT
Tokyo Open	7:00 pm	0:00
Tokyo Close	4:00 am	9:00
London Open	3:00 am	8:00
London Close	12:00 pm	17:00
New York Open	8:00 am	13:00
New York Close	5:00 pm	22:00

The Forex market (OTC)

The Forex OTC market is by far the biggest and most popular financial market in the world, traded globally by a large number of individuals and organizations. In the OTC market, participants determine who they want to trade with depending on trading conditions, attractiveness of prices and reputation of the trading counterpart.
The chart below shows global foreign exchange activity. The dollar is the most traded currency, being on one side of 89% of all transactions. The Euro’s share is second at 37%, while that of the yen is at 20%.

Why Trade Foreign Currencies?

There are many benefits and advantages to trading Forex. Here are just a few reasons why so many people are choosing this market:

• No commissions.
  No clearing fees, no exchange fees, no government fees, no brokerage fees. Brokers are compensated for their services through something called the bid-ask spread.
• No middlemen. Spot currency trading eliminates the middlemen, and allows you to trade directly with the market responsible for the pricing on a particular currency pair.
• No fixed lot size.
  In the futures markets, lot or contract sizes are determined by the exchanges. A standard-size contract for silver futures is 5000 ounces. In spot Forex, you determine your own lot size. This allows traders to participate with accounts as small as $250 (although we explain later why a $250 account is a bad idea).
• Low transaction costs.
  The retail transaction cost (the bid/ask spread) is typically less than 0.1 percent under normal market conditions. At larger dealers, the spread could be as low as .07 percent. Of course this depends on your leverage and all will be explained later.
• A 24-hour market.
  There is no waiting for the opening bell – from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon EST, the Forex market never sleeps. This is awesome for those who want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade–morning, noon or night.
• No one can corner the market.
  The foreign exchange market is so huge and has so many participants that no single entity (not even a central bank) can control the market price for an extended period of time.
• Leverage.
  In Forex trading, a small margin deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make nice profits, and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum. For example, Forex brokers offer 200 to 1 leverage, which means that a $50 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to buy or sell $10,000 worth of currencies. Similarly, with $500 dollars, one could trade with $100,000 dollars and so on. But leverage is a double-edged sword. Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.
• High Liquidity.
  Because the Forex Market is so enormous, it is also extremely liquid. This means that under normal market conditions, with a click of a mouse you can instantaneously buy and sell at will. You are never “stuck” in a trade. You can even set your online trading platform to automatically close your position at your desired profit level (a limit order), and/or close a trade if a trade is going against you (a stop loss order).
• Free “Demo” Accounts, News, Charts, and Analysis. Most online Forex brokers offer ‘demo’ accounts to practice trading, along with breaking Forex news and charting services. All free! These are very valuable resources for “poor” and SMART traders who would like to hone their trading skills with ‘play’ money before opening a live trading account and risking real money.
• “Mini” and “Micro” Trading:
  You would think that getting started as a currency trader would cost a ton of money. The fact is, compared to trading stocks, options or futures, it doesn’t. Online Forex brokers offer “mini” and “micro” trading accounts, some with a minimum account deposit of $300 or less. Now we’re not saying you should open an account with the bare minimum but it does makes Forex much more accessible to the average (poorer) individual who doesn’t have a lot of start-up trading capital.

What Tools Do I Need to Start Trading Forex?

A computer with a high-speed Internet connection and all the information on this site is all that is needed to begin trading currencies.

What Does It Cost to Trade Forex?

An online currency trading (a “micro account”) may be opened with a couple hundred bucks. Do not laugh – micro accounts and its bigger cousin, the mini account, are both good ways to get your feet wet without drowning. For a micro account, we’d recommend at least $1,000 to start. For a mini account, we’d recommend at least $10,000 to start.

Forex Trading Education in India - A Crash Course For Beginners!

India Saturday 14 August 2010: Foreign exchange reserves rose sharply during the week ended August 6, largely on account of inflows through the portfolio investment route and partly due to revaluation of non-dollar assets in reserves.
The country’s forex reserves rose by $2,948 million in the week ended August 6. The reserves are at $ 287.3 billion. While foreign currency assets comprising dollars, British pounds and euro, among others, rose $2,528 million, the value of gold in reserves remained unchanged during the week.
Among other components of reserves, special drawing rights, or SDRs, — the reserve currency
with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — and the reserve capital with the IMF rose by $35 million and $610 million, respectively.
Major global currencies were strengthened against the dollar during the week, resulting in revaluation of non-dollar reserve assets, said a senior treasury official with a private bank, requesting anonymity.
Banks have seen a dip in loans, but deposits have risen in the latest fortnight ended July 30. According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), while deposits have risen by Rs 47,759.85 crore to Rs 46,39,595.43 crore, loans dipped by Rs 6,211.2 crore to Rs 33,57,265.34 crore during the fortnight. As for their investments, banks pumped in over Rs 9,000 crore on account of sluggish loan demand during the fortnight.
The updated money supply — cash, currencies and deposits — figures released by the central bank indicate that the total stock of money in the system amounted to Rs 57,91,002 crore as on July 30, up Rs 40,442 crore over the previous fortnight’s levels. At current levels, the annual (year-on-year) growth works out to be 14.7% compared to 20.6% in the year-ago period.
In other developments, both the Centre as well as state governments did not resort to any short-term borrowings from the central bank. Such borrowings are resorted to by the government to meet its daily revenue mismatches. These short-term borrowings are known as ways and means advances (WMAs), a facility under which governments borrow from the central bank to meet their daily revenue mismatches.

The Basics of Foreign Exchange

Foreign exchange is essentially about exchanging one currency for another. The complexity arises from three factors. Firstly what is the foreign exchange exposure, secondly what will be the rate of exchange, and thirdly when does the actual exchange occur.

Identification of Foreign Exchange Exposures

Foreign exchange exposures arise from many different activities. A traveller going to visit another country has the risk that if that country's currency appreciates against their own their trip will be more expensive.

An exporter who sells its product in foreign currency has the risk that if the value of that foreign currency falls then the revenues in the exporter's home currency will be lower.

An importer who buys goods priced in foreign currency has the risk that the foreign currency will appreciate thereby making the local currency cost greater than expected.

Fund Managers and companies who own foreign assets are exposed to falls in the currencies where they own the assets. This is because if they were to sell (repatriate) those assets their exchange rate would have a negative effect on the home currency value.

Other foreign exchange exposures are less obvious and relate to the exporting and importing in ones local currency but where the negotiated price is being effected by exchange rate movements.

Generally the aim of foreign exchange risk management is to stabilise the cash flows and reduce uncertainty from financial forecasts. Fortunately there are a range of hedging instruments that achieve exactly that.

Spot and Forward Foreign Exchange Contracts

The most basics tools of FX risk management are 'spot' and 'forward' contracts. These are contracts between end users and financial institutions that specify the terms of an exchange of two currencies. In any FX contract there are a number of variables that need to be agreed upon and they are:

1. The currencies to be bought and sold - in every contract there are two currencies the one that is bought and the one that is sold
2. The amount of currency to be bought or sold
3. The date at which the contract matures
4. The rate at which the exchange of currencies will occur

It is point three that requires further explanation. Whenever you see exchange rates advertised either in the newspapers or on the various information services, the rates of exchange assume a deal with a maturity of two business days ahead -a deal done on this basis is called a spot deal.

In a spot transaction the currency that is bought will be receivable in two days whilst the currency that is sold will be payable in two days. This applies to all major currencies with the exception of the Canadian Dollar.

However most market participants want to exchange the currencies at a time other than two days in advance but would like to know the rate of exchange now. For example if ABC Ltd had contracted to purchase a machine for the price of USD 1 million payable in 6 months time but wanted to be sure that the USD would not become too strong in the interim. ABC Ltd could agree now to buy the USD for delivery in 6 months time. In other words ABC Ltd could negotiate a rate at which it could buy USD at some time in the future, setting the amount of USD needed, the date needed etc. and hence be sure of the local currency purchasing price now.

In determining the rate of exchange in six months time there are two components:

1) the current spot rate 
2) the forward rate adjustment

The spot rate is simply the current market rate as determined by supply and demand. The forward rate adjustment is a slightly more complicated calculation that involves the interest rates of the currencies involved.